Newberry Exhibit Displays World War One Through The Eyes Of Chicagoans

CHICAGO (CBS) --A new exhibit at the Newberry Library aims to show World War One through the eyes of people from Chicago.

Before America entered World War One, the U.S. sent soldiers to France to help run the railroads.

"They were the first American boots on the ground in Europe - these engineers who were helping run the railroads," said Diane Dillon, curator of the Newberry Library's exhibit, "Chicago, Europe and the Great War." "And nobody knows about this - that I know of."

Dillon says the 13th Engineers Regiment was from Chicago.

The Americans helped transport men and materials - while the French men who usually worked the railroad lines were at the front.

Dillon says it's likely that the Americans spoke little French.

"They learned when they got there," she said.

The exhibit features a scrapbook from 1918 that was assembled by James Shores Griffith, a housepainter in Chicago.
"But when war broke out, he signed up and went over. And he... took his Brownie camera with him," said Dillon.

"Here's a snapshot of a Sopwith Camel and sort of a machine-gun camera, so he's showing these... war scenes, but then he's also showing scenes of the French countryside. Women washing clothes in a stream. French peasants in the countryside.

"There's a picture of him on his bicycle with his fellow Army buddies bicycling through Europe on their days off."

Part soldier, part tourist, part anthropologist, Dillon says.

The exhibit is "Chicago, Europe and the Great War," at the Newberry until January 3.